SpaceX Launch Pad Explodes At Cape Canaveral

SpaceX is probing why the firm’s Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a prelaunch test on 1st September; however, it is not clear when there will be any conclusive answers.

The powerful blast destroyed both the two-stage Falcon 9 and also the Amos-6 communications satellite that the rocket was scheduled to launch on 3rd September from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. No one was injured, SpaceX representative stated.

SpaceX last lost a Falcon 9 on 28th June 2015, when the rocket broke apart less than three minutes after launching the company’s robotic Dragon capsule toward the ISS for NASA.

It took weeks to know the root cause of that accident. Musk stated on 20th July 2015 that SpaceX had traced the issue to a defective steel strut on the upper stage inside the Falcon 9. This strut, one of hundreds on board aboard the rocket, snapped, permitting liquid helium to shoot at high pressure to the upper-stage liquid-oxygen tank located at the top of the Falcon 9, Musk stated back then.

In the aftermath of the incident, SpaceX made the decision to test and approve every single such strut, which goes into a Falcon 9, he added.

A Falcon 9 did not fly once more after the June 2015 explosion until 21st December, when the rocket successfully lifted eleven satellites for the firm Orbcomm, and the Falcon 9 first stage returned to Cape Canaveral and pulled off the first-ever soft landing in an orbital launch.

The 21st December mission marked the maiden flight of a highly upgraded version of the Falcon 9, which had been in the works for a while, one referred to as “Full Thrust”, which boasts increased power and an enhanced stage-separation system, among additional features, Musk has stated.

Falcon 9 Full Thrust vehicles had flown 8 successive successful missions, most of them as well that includes first-stage landings before the recent accident.